Planning Board recommends city change zoning near new business

December 5, 2013

GLOVERSVILLE - The Planning Board is recommending the Common?Council change the zoning on South Kingsboro Avenue near an under-construction Burger King restaurant from residential to commercial.

The council is considering the idea after eight residents on the road asked the city to change the zoning to entice other businesses to move to that area and make their properties more appealing to developers.

The rezoning would affect one side of South Kingsboro Avenue. Department of Public Works Director Kevin Jones said the zoning change would affect eight houses at the bottom of South Kingsboro near the intersection with Route 30A, where the Burger King is being built. The property owned by Foothills United Methodist?Church behind the residents is zoned commercial. The zone can be extended to the residents' properties, Jones said.

Planning Board members in attendance at its meeting Tuesday unanimously supported recommending the zoning change. Board members James Handy and John Castiglione were absent.

However, Geoffrey Peck - vice chairman of the Planning Board - questioned why the city wouldn't just change the zoning of all the properties in that area to avoid any delays in the future, since more people are expected to market their land to businesses.

Jones noted only the eight residents signed the petition submitted to the council seeking the zoning change; the city does not want to change a property's zoning unless it is called for by the owner.

"None of [the other] property owners have come and asked for their zoning to be changed," Jones told the board. "I think more people will be coming in as more development comes to that area."

With the city Planning Board supporting the zoning change, the city is waiting on a recommendation from the Fulton County Planning?Board, which has a meeting scheduled for Dec. 17.

The council previously planned to change the zoning from residential to residential-commercial, which the residents requested.

However, Jones said, the residents changed their mind after he told them if a big business is interested in property, the zoning would have to be commercial.

"I explained that residential-commercial is best if they expect their home to become a barber shop in the middle of a residential area," Jones told the Planning Board. "They were expecting a [Cumberland Farms] or smaller project like BK to use the land, so full commercial is what they were looking for."

Carrols Corp., the company building the Burger King, is constructing the 2,763-square-foot restaurant on property previously owned by the Foothills church. Carrols demolished a house to make room for the restaurant.

Hill Street will become a four-way intersection with South Kingsboro Avenue, with a new portion of road constructed in a wooded area across from Hill Street. The new road will run along the back of the properties seeking the zoning change.